The Hornet's Nest

Before starting, the movie was more-so a documentary on the journalist than it was the soldiers. It seemed the soldiers were sidelined the whole time and more of a side story for the journalists. Unlike Restrepo, the movie was pitched from the journalist's (Mike and Carlos Boetcher) point of view and mainly from Mike's point of view as the father. It isn't until the last 15 minutes of the movie that they seem to care at all about the soldiers, finally having interviews with them on their combat actions and their opinions, which even then seemed more like a 30 second piece than the reason for the movie.

The first major thing watching the movie to bug me, however, was that they felt the need to add a vast amount of sound effects. From added gun noises, to yelling, to bullet sounds, they would frequently place these added effects over the combat footage as if that combat (real combat) wasn't exciting enough. Being an Afghan War Veteran myself, I felt this was kind of a jab, to say that the soldier's actual stories and actual combat was not worthy of Hollywood. After also watching movies such as Restrepo, I feel this was completely unnecessary.

Those things aside, the movie wasn't awful. I do feel it should have been more about the actual soldiers and the war rather than Mike. I found it rather ironic as well that with him taking so much of the movie to direct to himself and his son, and take away from the soldiers, that he later goes on to say that he was trying to tell their stories.

Overall, for a civilian the movie will hopefully paint a slightly better picture on the war, and it was still done quite well. I just have my feelings on the side due to my past experiences.

Can't believe the stupidity in these reviews. Giving a bad review because you don't understand or recognize the basic subject matter of the documentary? Smdh. You people are a disgrace to Americans. No wonder the world thinks we're idiots. You people do all you can to prove we are. Smfh.

At its core I love what this doccie does: it presents some front line perspectives of American soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. That in itself is impressive and at times harrowing.

But then the movie wraps itself in a jacket of awful ideas. The soundtrack feels ripped from every reality show made in the past few years. I almost started to expect a host from something like Fear Factor to show up. The storytelling is also very convoluted. It skims details and personalities, briefly introducing them before running to the next plot point.

While it goes out of its way to highlight the sacrifices made by the soldiers, The Hornet's Nest gives little clarity on what is going on half of the time. Other than bring across the intensity of firefights, much more isn't revealed.

But my biggest problems are the cheap narrative tricks. At times moments are made more dramatic than they are, especially if it involves one of the journalists potentially getting shot. This is done twice and both times it's more a trick of editing than what actually happened.

I'd liken this to Ross Kemp's Afghanistan doccies: intense, but vapid and a little bit exploitative. You don't come out of The Hornet's Nest learning much, other than Americans are great soldiers. If that is the point, this succeeds. But it could have done so much more with its material instead of feeling like a made-for-reality-TV special.

Could have done without the contrived father/son drama at the start of the film, it was so bad I almost stopped watching it. Luckily I kept on watching it, it really picked up steam in the second half when the film was devoted to the 101st in operation strong eagle III. It really highlighted the sacrifice of the soldiers and their willingness to give all.

I was a civilian contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, the losses and ceremonies commemorating them were always sad. The professionalism of the US troops, despite the politics and questionable nature of the Iraq War always made me proud.

I have always had the highest respect for people serving in our military, but this film really does bring home and highlight what happens on the battlefield. Regardless of your political views or your opinion of whether the US should be engaged in a specific war, this documentary puts you in the battle and shows you the true brotherhood and love that soldiers share among each other.

It also really shows how close soldiers get with one another and how they use jokes and other tactics to handle the extreme stress they face on the battlefield. When a soldier gets hit, you can tell that every one of them will do whatever it takes not to leave their brothers behind in battle.

The ending of this movie really stung. Having lost some of their buddies during a battle, you are drawn into the intense emotion that is felt by each soldier. There is so much love and respect among them all and it really drives home just how selfless many of these soldiers are and what they have to deal with during an intense engagement.

These women and men put everything on the line so we can enjoy a better way of life and a better society -- they are all true heroes and this documentary is a powerful reminder of that fact.